Ashes granted 'listed' status for return to free-to-air television

Published on Thursday 12 November 2009 21:48

A REVIEW of sport's "listed events" will today recommend that the England cricket team's home Ashes Tests should be screened on free-to-air television.

The recommendations on the 'Crown Jewels' of British sport will be published following an inquiry headed by David Davies, the former executive director of the Football Association. As well as the Ashes, it is understood his report will also recommend that World Cup and European Championship qualifiers involving home nations be listed events, plus tennis' Wimbledon Championships and golf's Open Championship.

The review is also likely to announce the ditching of the B list for highlights.

The Government are not obliged to follow the recommendations and the England and Wales Cricket Board will argue vociferously that the financial impact would be devastating for the sport which has a 300million deal with Sky.

Cricket chiefs are particularly angry given that the BBC has not bid for any packages of live English cricket since 1998. It is also understood that horse racing's Derby and rugby league's Challenge Cup final are recommended to be axed as listed events.

The new proposals have been drawn-up after ten months of hearings, research and input from overseas.

The panel's conclusions will be published by the DCMS today and they are expected to be followed by a 12-week period of consultation. But the culture secretary, Ben Bradshaw, and the sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, who will ultimately decide whether to accept the panel's recommendations, will struggle to get any changes on to the statute book ahead of next year's general election.

The review was ordered in December 2008 by Andy Burnham, then the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, who was keen to ensure the top major sporting events, such as the Olympics, were kept on terrestrial television.

Burnham accepted, however, that the sale of sports rights to broadcasters such as Sky could lead to a positive impact for sports. He said at the time: "The broadcast of big sports events gets young people inspired by sport, driving sports participation and the creation of the next generation of sports stars. The sale of TV rights helps fund grassroots sport, so we need to get the balance right."

The Government have refused to comment ahead of today's publication, while an ECB spokesman said it had not seen the report.

Cricket chiefs have been saying that the whole review has been flawed with no sports right expert included on the review panel, and a failure of the inquiry to commission independent reports on the economic impact of any changes.